Here we have stated the sublime results of the incarnation and death of Christ in their influence upon the present temptation and death of believers.
Our Lord did not assume an angelic nature, which would have necessarily set him at some distance from us, since the experiences of those sinless and exalted beings would have been to some degree inconceivable by us. He took hold of the seed of Abraham, and enshrined his Divine nature in human flesh and blood, and felt all the innocent emotions and sensations of our race. He was hungry and thirsty, he was weary and slept, and wept and rejoiced like his brethren. Then he felt the pangs of death, by which he achieved a happy and invaluable change in our views of departure from this world. Death had derived its terror from Satan, who prompted men to sin and then alarmed them with the fear of condemnation and punishment. Under the Law many regarded death with trembling and anxiety; and righteous men like Hezekiah shrank from the approach of the "king of terrors." It was bondage which restrained from enjoyment, and made life like a man wearing fetters from which he could not get free. The death of our Lord seemed the masterpiece of Satan; but it became the cause of his most humiliating overthrow, for ever after those who believe in Jesus may walk with serene confidence, in the light of the Redeemer's victory, towards their eternal rest, and realize the words, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord."
"O precious ransom! which once paid,
That Consummatum est was said,
And said by him that said no more,
But sealed it with his sacred breath!
Thou, then, that hast dispurged our score,
And dying met the death of death,
Be now, while on thy Name we call,
Our Life, our Strength, our Joy, our All."
(Sir H. Wotton)
Being made like unto his brethren in the participation of their nature, he made, as a merciful and faithful High Priest, reconciliation for them by his sacrificial death. By his oblation he revealed the Divine displeasure against sin, and made a way for those who were once rebels to become reconciled to the character of God, his methods of salvation, and to the enjoyment of the privileges and hopes of the Christian lice. He passed through a career of temptation in which Satan strove to overthrow him, the world endeavored to turn him away from his work, and his fierce enemies, the Pharisees, strove to frustrate his gracious designs. He was alone in the vastness of the temptations he endured, and carried, without any earthly sympathy, the vast burden of his sorrows. Now, from his vast and painful experience, he is able to sympathize with all who are tempted, and to cheer them with the truth that, should every heart around be unmoved, and every ear closed to their griefs, he feels for them with a vividness and certainty which may awaken confidence, and increase their joy in the Lord.—B.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG